An Ice-Bound Brook. 



29 



reigns in the camps of the minnows. The 

 grasses and pendulous growths that now so 

 peacefully wave with the gentle current may at 

 any moment be tossed tumultuously aside, and 

 the water be roiled for a rod or more of its 

 present crystalline course. It is not always a 



pike that is at the bottom of the mischief. A 

 mink may surprise the pike, that is at the mo- 

 ment premeditating murder, and for an instant 

 pandemonium reigns. 



My little brook is but a mere remnant now 

 of the pretentious stream of other days ; and, 



